The Ðying Liƒe. »A Walking Dead Fanfic«

5. What Else Happened?

Daryl was a few paces behind me as we made our way back to camp. I was so embarrassed with myself, I was never that forward when it came to anyone. I nervously started fussing with my shirt, making sure it wasn't too much of a mess but I knew it was useless. I was covered in grime and mud but there wasn't much I could do to fix it.

Walking out of the shadows of the large trees, Shane came running up to me with a look of concern on his face. "Where the hell have you two been?" He came to an abrupt halt once he saw how dirty I was. "What happened?" He demanded. "You two have been gone for over an hour." "We ran into a couple of walkers in the woods, that's all, but we took care of them, nothing bad happened." I glanced around behind him toward the camp, thinking someone, anyone else would intervene but they all stayed back. "What happened?" he repeated, gripping my shoulder as if that would get the real truth from me. "She just told ya," Daryl answered as he walked past Shane and I, "why don't ya listen to her?" I looked up at Daryl, thankful he was sticking up for us.

"Are you alright?" Shane asked a bit calmer, eyeing my scraped leg. "Yeah, I just tripped and fell" Shane nodded, remembering how clumsy I could be. "You need to watch out for your girl here, Shane, she's a feisty one." Daryl called over his shoulder as he walked away. I could feel the blood pool in my cheeks and Shane just shook his head probably grateful nothing worse happened to me. Leading me to the camp, he said, "come on, lets get you cleaned up at least." Lori came up just then, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, "I'll go ask Patricia if you can use the shower in the house, why don't you go get some clean clothes." I hated when people fussed over me.

As I turned and headed to my tent, I caught Andrea and Carol watching me. A smile spread across Andrea's face but Carol's remained blank. Climbing into my tent, I knelt down on my sleeping bag and took a moment to compose myself and go over everything that had just happened. I decided not to think too much into and just let things progress naturally, that's to say if anything more would happen between Daryl and I. In the end, I chalked it up to being caught in the moment and nothing more.

"What happened out there?" Andrea popped her head into my tent, causing me to jump. "Oh my gods you scared me!" I exclaimed turning to face her, "I already told Shane what happened." I said and scooted further in my tent to give her room. "Yeah, but what really happened" she smirked. I couldn't believe how nosey she was being but I gave her points for being so forward with her curiosity. I ended up giving her a quick version of what went on in the woods and tried to down play the part where I kissed Daryl. She started laughing to herself and shook her head, "what is it about taking down walkers that gets you so hot and bothered?" She sighed, referring to her shoot out in the subdivision. "I don't know...I don't think I would have done that otherwise" I dropped my hands into my lap, shrugging a little. "Nothing else happened?" she went on, narrowing her eyes at me. I scoffed and hit her with my pillow, "no, even if it did, I don't know if I'd tell you." Andrea couldn't help but laugh a little louder.

"Hey Nora?" Lori called from outside the tent and I got up on my knees to lean over Andrea and peered out at her. "Patricia said you may use the shower in the house" she said. "Oh, OK, thanks Lori!" I replied and scooted back into the tent. The prospect of showering in an actual shower sounded too nice right then. "I'll let you do your thing" Andrea said and climbed out of the tent. I looked around to see if I could find any clean clothes to change into and I found a pair of sweat pants and and a t-shirt. Realizing the only other bra I had with me was dirty, I wondered if I could get away with out one. "Screw it" I said. I wasn't well endowed anyway so I figured I would be alright and gathered my clothes to head up to the house.

As I made my way up the porch steps there was Maggie sitting on the porch swing and Glenn on the railing in front of her. When he saw me, he gave me a tiny wave. "Hey Nora" he said, taking in my disheveled appearance. Maggie gasped, "Oh, gosh! What happened to you?" I really wished everyone would realize the prospect of running into trouble while out in the woods was inevitable by now and just stop asking what had happened to me. I took a breath to calm myself and to keep from saying something I'd later regret, "Just some walkers out in the woods, you know? Thankfully Daryl was with me," was all I dared to say and forced a smile, "I'm good though but thanks for checking." They both looked as if they wanted to say something, but not doing so proved just how smart they were.

I knocked on the screen door of the house and Patricia rushed to open it. "Oh Nora! Lori told me what happened to you in the woods, I'm so glad you and Daryl are OK," she said, ushering me into the house. "Let me show you were you can clean up". She lead me to the back of the house to the bathroom. "Let's see, the towels are in here," she opened a small closet behind the bathroom door, "please use only one." After she showed me where the rest of the bathroom necessities were, she turned to me with a faint trace of a smile on her lips. "Thanks so much Patricia," I said softly, "I really appreciate it," I smiled. "I'll leave you be then," and she closed the door behind her as she left.

Looking around the quaint, country bathroom I got a knot in the pit of my stomach, suddenly becoming very homesick.